Claim: A video shows Africa’s elected president, Ibrahim Traoré, chastising Pakistanis for not speaking up for Imran Khan — whom he praises as a leader “of the entire Muslim Ummah” — and vowing to raise his voice for the former premier at the United Nations. Two other clips show him glorifying the Pakistani leader and promising to emulate his policies.
Fact: Captain Traoré did not make any such remarks; in fact, the audio is doctored onto a video, which itself was likely generated through artificial intelligence (AI). Two other clips of him speaking about Khan, similar to the primary one being fact-checked, are also manipulated with fake audio added to the original footage from an event in 2024. Moreover, he is the president of Burkina Faso, not “Africa” — which is actually a continent, not a country — and he came to power through a coup d’état in October 2022, meaning that he was never elected.
On 29 May 2025, Facebook page ‘Imran khan fans’ posted (archive) a video of Burkina Faso’s President Captain Ibrahim Traoré, allegedly speaking in favour of Pakistan’s incarcerated former prime minister and founder of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Imran Khan. In the video, he calls the Pakistani politician the leader “of the entire Muslim Ummah”.
The Facebook post is captioned as follows:
“عمران خان صرف پاکستان کا نہیں بلکہ پوری امت مسلمہ کا لیڈر ہے جتنا جلدی ہو سکے عمران خان کو رہا کیا جائے – صدر ابراہیم 🔥🔥
[Imran Khan is the leader not only of Pakistan but of the entire Muslim Ummah. Imran Khan should be released as soon as possible. President Ibrahim 🔥🔥]”
In the video, Traoré reportedly also talks about how he would raise his voice at the United Nations for Khan — whom he labels “an asset of Pakistan” — and says, “If the people of Pakistan do not awaken, listen, people of Africa will awaken and it will free their brother from this imprisonment.”
Further, the Burkinabé president chastises Pakistanis for ignoring their former premier, saying they “should be ashamed” and asking, “Are you sitting silently? Do you not have any pride? Have you forgotten that he fought for you, that he went to jail for you?”
The full content of his speech in the viral video is as follows:
“Peace be upon you. I am Ibrahim, the elected president of Africa, and today I want to deliver a message to every corner of the world. O people of Pakistan, you should be ashamed. Your leader, Imran Khan, who is not just the leader of Pakistan but of the entire Muslim Ummah, is in jail today. Are you sitting silently? Do you not have any pride? Have you forgotten that he fought for you, that he went to jail for you? We, in Africa, respect him, consider him our brother, and [indecipherable] I will raise my voice at the United Nations. I will tell the world that Imran Khan is not just an asset of Pakistan but of the entire Ummah. If the people of Pakistan do not awaken, listen, people of Africa will awaken and it will free their brother from this imprisonment. Free Imran Khan. This is the time for unity, the time for pride. Pakistan, now, the decision is yours.”
The clip also includes superimposed text, which is the Urdu translation of portions from Traoré’s purported speech.
‘Pan-Africanist’ leader of Burkina Faso
Captain Ibrahim Traoré is a military officer who rose to power through a military coup in 2022, ousting then-President Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba.
He was to serve as interim president and lead Burkina Faso’s transition, with expectations that he would “hand over leadership to a civilian government in July [2024]” but his term was extended by five years until 2029, according to Al Jazeera.
The 37-year-old is the world’s second youngest head of state who has “skilfully built the persona of a pan-Africanist leader determined to free his nation from what he regards as the clutches of Western imperialism and neo-colonialism”, BBC noted in May 2025.
Imran Khan’s imprisonment
Khan, who served as Pakistan’s 22nd Prime Minister, was ousted from power after losing a no-confidence vote in the parliament, less than four years after he won the 2018 general election. He was arrested over corruption charges on 9 May 2023 on the orders of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), an anti-graft watchdog.
His detention triggered violent, countrywide protests, which later led to his supporters and members of the PTI being detained, with some being tried in military courts. Khan was released a few days later after the Supreme Court of Pakistan intervened.
In its 2024 report on Pakistan, Amnesty International noted the crackdown against PTI following the 9 May 2023 protests and wrote, “Civilians were held under military custody throughout the year. Out of the 105 participants in the 9 May 2023 protests who were tried in military courts, 20 were released in March and the remaining 85 were sentenced to between two and 10 years’ imprisonment in December in secret trials.
“At least 1,058 protest participants remained in custody waiting for trials in civilian courts, including PTI leaders Yasmin Rashid and Shah Mehmood Qureshi,” the rights body wrote.
The PTI founder was then arrested and imprisoned for a second time on 5 August 2023, after a court ruled that his “dishonesty [was] established beyond doubt”. This conviction barred him from holding political office for five years and he has been incarcerated since then.
Khan’s arrest came as he faced over 100 charges since his ousting; many of these were linked to allegations of corruption and inciting violence.
On 30 January 2024, less than 10 days before Pakistan’s general elections, it was reported that the former PM was sentenced to 10 years in prison in a case which charged him with leaking state secrets under the country’s Official Secrets Act. Within the same week, he and his wife, Bushra Bibi, were handed seven years each over an “un-Islamic” marriage.
This year, he was handed a 14-year jail term in January in a corruption case involving the Al-Qadir Trust. He was also fined over £4,000, while his wife received a seven-year sentence and a fine.
In an opinion, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) termed Khan’s detention “arbitrary”. Rights groups have also noted “a pattern of weaponization of the legal system to keep Imran Khan under detention and away from all political activity”.
Khan and the PTI have dismissed all the charges against the former prime minister, calling them politically motivated.
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check traced the video to TikTok user @samiullah.1999 (archive), who posted it here on 29 May 2025.
@samiullah.1999 posted two other videos of Traoré talking about Pakistan and Imran Khan here and here on 3 June and 31 May 2025, respectively.
In the first one from 3 June 2025, Traoré says, “In the name of Allah, the most gracious, the most merciful. My dear companions. Today, we stand at a time where the world needs those who speak the truth, those who stand firm on righteousness, and those who boldly stand against oppression. And when I think of these qualities, only one name comes to my mind, CA (sic) Imran Khan. Yes, the same Imran Khan, who is not only the pride of Pakistan, but also the pride of the Muslim Ummah. This guy does not bow, nor does it sell. Those who speak against tyranny and rise as the voice of the people. I, Ibrahim Tarazzi (sic), Prime Minister of Africa, declare today from this global stage that we salute the ideology of Imran Khan, his sacrifices, and his determination. The world needs leaders like Imran Khan who break the chains of slavery and teach their nation the lesson of dignity. African people stand with Imran Khan, raise your voice. Long live Imran Khan! Raise your voice. Long live Pakistan!
In the second one from 31 May 2025, he says, “Ibrahim Tarazzi says to the world: Free Imran Khan! He is not just the leader of Pakistan, but of the entire Muslim Ummah. If Imran Khan walks with me, we will become the voice of the oppressed. I also want a policy like Imran Khan’s and the world will recognise me by Imran Khan’s name. I will lead my nation on the path of justice and truth by following the way of Bilal Habshi (May God be pleased with him). And I will also raise my voice for Palestine. My dear brothers and sisters, today, I have become president with a new determination and I have set my path following the footsteps of Bilal ibne Rabah (May Allah be pleased with him). Just as he raised his voice for justice, equality, and truth, I will do the same. I will raise my voice for the oppressed people of Palestine and, InshaAllah, I will strive to unite the Islamic world. I will speak to the president of Pakistan and every possible effort will be made for the release of Imran Khan. This is not just my promise, it is my faith. I promise the African people that I will fight against oppression on every front, no matter where it may be. I will also raise my voice for Imran Khan, the people’s leader of Pakistan, who is currently imprisoned innocently. Pakistan had found the gem and, unfortunately, it is losing it.”
“Bilal Habshi” or “Bilal ibne Rabah” refers to the Black companion of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), who ensured his freedom from slavery and granted him the status of being Islam’s first muezzin or the person who calls Muslims to prayers.
From @samiullah.1999, Soch Fact Check traced the primary video we’re investigating to a clip (archive) over 25 minutes long that was posted on 25 May 2025 by the YouTube channel Univers Inspirant. Notably, the video caption includes a warning:
“IMPORTANT NOTICE: This video is entirely fictional content created for entertainment purposes only. While the content may be inspired by real events, all situations, dialogues, and characters depicted are fictional. Although inspired by Ibrahim Traoré’s life, the events and dialogues shown are not real and are part of an artistic creation process. No direct connection to any real person or institution is intended. This video is not meant to convey a political message but is prepared solely for entertainment and artistic expression. Viewers are advised to conduct their own research on the subject.”
Moreover, YouTube itself has marked the video as “Altered or synthetic content,” noting that “sound or visuals were significantly edited or digitally generated.”However, even in the YouTube version, Traoré does not mention Imran Khan or Pakistan at all, indicating that this synthetic video was further manipulated, likely using artificial intelligence (AI), to change the Burkinabé president’s remarks to focus on the former Pakistani PM and his imprisonment.
Social media users posted the aforementioned video in full or in part hundreds of times and it was subsequently debunked and labeled as AI generated by AFP Fact Check, which is accredited by the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN). Interestingly, over the past few months, the Burkinabé president has been the focus of many similar AI-generated clips, which feature praise for him by Pope Leo XIV and renowned singers such as Beyoncé, Rihanna, R. Kelly, Selena Gomez, and Eminem.
As for the videos posted by TikTok user @samiullah.1999 on 3 June and 31 May 2025, we were able to trace them to an event on 9 August 2024 to mark the International Youth Day in Burkina Faso’s capital, Ouagadougou. Footage from the day can be viewed on the YouTube channel of the national broadcaster, Radiodiffusion Télévision du Burkina (RTB), and the TikTok account of the local media outlet Burkina 24.
LeFaso.net also reported on the event in which Traoré addressed the youth of his country and Africa and a press release about it from the Burkina Faso Presidency’s Communications Department can be read here.
Matching elements from the viral video — such as the clothing of the people in the background, the flag placement, and the faces of military officers — can be seen in a picture posted on its Facebook page.
Soch Fact Check also successfully located the exact original clip that was subsequently altered using fake audio. It was posted on the Burkina Faso Presidency’s Facebook page on 12 August 2024. The accompanying caption, translated from French to English, reads as follows:
“On the occasion of International Youth Day celebrated in advance on Friday, 9 August 2024, in Burkina Faso, the President of Faso, Head of State, Captain Ibrahim TRAORE delivered a message to the thousands of young people from the 13 regions of the country and the 54 countries of Africa.”
Soch Fact Check also observed that Traoré primarily speaks in French, a dominant language in many African countries, not English. This is especially interesting because the viral clips depict him not only speaking in English but with a clear American accent.
Moreover, in the primary video in question, Traoré introduces himself as the “elected president of Africa”. However, in the second clip, posted on 3 June 2025, he says he is the “Prime Minister of Africa”. This is false as Traoré is the president of Burkina Faso, not “Africa.” He was never elected either, but came to power through a coup d’état in October 2022, and he has never held the title of Prime Minister.
In both videos posted by @samiullah.1999 on 3 June and 31 May 2025, Traoré identifies himself as “Ibrahim Tarazzi”. However, it is unlikely that the Burkinabé president forgot his own surname, which is Traoré.
Observations of fact-checkers in Africa
To further verify our findings, Soch Fact Check spoke to Samba Dialimpa Badji, a research fellow at Decoding Digital Media in African regions of Conflict (DDMAC) and former editor of Africa Check, an IFCN signatory.
“I am not aware of him talking about Pakistan and not (sic) local media in Burkina Faso has reported that,” Badji told us. Regarding his language skills, he confirmed that Traoré “may speak a little bit, but he must (sic) not be fluent in English”.
This was further corroborated by Adnan Sidibe, a journalist and fact-checker at Fasocheck, which is based in Burkina Faso. “As for the English expression, I’ve never heard him [Traoré] say it,” he said.
We also reached out to PesaCheck, another IFCN signatory, whose team further confirmed our observations about Traoré’s language skills, saying, “It’s worth noting that the Burkinabé (Burkina Faso) leader does not speak English. There’s no record of any official communication/speech he has delivered in English from the time he took power”.
They also told us that Traoré has “never mentioned Pakistan or [the former] PM Imran Khan” and that he primarily “talked about African dignity and sovereignty”.
The PesaCheck team further said, “In the shared TikTok videos, Traoré introduces [himself as] ‘I am Ibrahim, the elected president of Africa’, which is inaccurate in two ways: 1) He is not an ‘elected president’ as he became [the] president after a military coup [and] no elections have been held after that. 2) ‘Africa is not a country’ and he is unlikely to introduce himself with such inaccuracies.
“In another video, he supposedly said, ‘I am Ibrahim Tarazzi, the Prime Minister of Africa’, which is also wrong; he cannot forget his own name and he’s neither [the] Prime Minister, nor a leader of ‘Africa’ as we indicated.”
Sound engineer’s analysis
Soch Fact Check also sought a comment for audio analysis from Shaur Azher, a lecturer and audio engineer at Soch Videos, our sister company, who specialises in sound design and mixing and mastering audio.
The video “strongly indicates synthetic generation across both audio and visual components” as there is an “absence of natural acoustic features and human behavioral cues”, said Azher, who also teaches at the University of Karachi and the Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Institute of Science and Technology (SZABIST). It was “most likely generated using artificial intelligence (AI) or digital puppetry systems”, he added.
His technical observations are as follows:
- Synthetic frequencies detected: The spectral content analysis reveals prominent frequency bands commonly associated with speech synthesis engines. These frequencies lack the subtle variations and imperfections typically present in natural human voice recordings.
- No natural transients detected: Transient response analysis shows a complete absence of natural acoustic transients (such as plosive bursts or mic diaphragm response), indicating that the audio was likely artificially generated or heavily processed through synthetic means.
- Monotone dialogue detected: The pitch contour and dynamic range remain uniform throughout the dialogue. This is consistent with text-to-speech systems and lacks the emotional range and variation of natural human speech.
- Artificial reverb detected: Reverb characteristics exhibit digital uniformity with no relation to an actual room impulse response. This artificial tail was likely applied using software rather than captured in a physical acoustic environment.
- Synthetic facial and vocal sync: Visual analysis of mouth, eye blinking, and head movement shows non-organic timing and symmetry. The lip-sync appears algorithmically timed, and the eye and mouth movements lack the micro-irregularities of human behavior, indicating the use of AI or deepfake animation tools.
DeepFake-O-Meter
We tested the primary video by using DeepFake-O-Meter, a tool developed by the University at Buffalo’s Media Forensics Lab (UB MDFL).
Of the available detectors, we used three, namely DSP-FWA, WAV2LIP-STA, and LIPINC. They revealed that the probability of the video in question being fake was 99.9%, 95.3%, and 87%, respectively.
DSP-FWA, or Dual Spatial Pyramid for Exposing Face Warp Artifacts, “is a deep learning-based method that can effectively distinguish AI-generated fake videos”, according to the DeepFake-O-Meter. It “target(s) the artefacts in affine face warping as the distinctive feature to distinguish real and fake images”.
WAV2LIP-STA, or WAV2LIP Spatial and Temporal Attention, “can identify wav2lip model generated deepfake videos”, according to the DeepFake-O-Meter. This deep learning-based method “learns the spatial and temporal artifacts from multi-frames (5) to expose wav2lip deepfakes”.
LIPINC, or Lip-syncing detection based on mouth inconsistency, is also a deep learning-based method that detects “lip-syncing deepfakes by identifying the spatial-temporal discrepancies in the mouth region of deepfake videos”, according to the DeepFake-O-Meter.
Soch Fact Check, therefore, concludes that all three videos are doctored, likely using AI, making the claim false.
Virality
Soch Fact Check found the doctored videos posted here, here, here, here, and here on Facebook, here on YouTube, here, here, and here on Instagram, here, here, and here on X (formerly Twitter), and here on Threads.
On TikTok, the video gained significant traction, with two posts being viewed over 2.3 million and one million times, respectively, so far.
Conclusion: Captain Traoré did not make any such remarks; in fact, the audio is doctored onto a video, which itself was likely generated through AI. Two other clips of Traoré speaking about Khan, similar to the primary video being fact-checked, are also manipulated, and feature fake audio added over original footage from a 2024 event. Moreover, the military leader is the president of Burkina Faso, not “Africa” — which is a continent, not a country — and he came to power through a coup d’état in October 2022, meaning that he was never elected.
Background image in cover photo: Presidence.bf
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